Paul Harding, Tinkers (Harper Collins, 2009)
As he lies dying, surrounded by his family, an amateur clock-repairer hallucinates about his own father who was largely absent. Astonishing writing that conjures up rural Maine in the 19th century, in all its harsh beauty. The characters are vivid, the central theme compelling: none of us can quite grasp the entirety of who we […]
Benjamin Perrin, Invisible Chains: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking (Viking Canada, 2010)
A personal journey of civic engagement. A study of Canadians’ horrible contributions to human trafficking at home and abroad. A plea for concerted national and international action. Although the media tends to focus on trafficking for sexual exploitation, the even wider issue of forced labour should cause us equal concern. Gripping.
Cynthia Ozick, Foreign Bodies (houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010)
In a clever thematic inversion of James’s The Ambassadors, Ozick describes escaping children, a controlling father, and a bewildered aunt commisioned – much against her will – to sort out family troubles. All of the characters are deeply selfish, which makes it hard to feel much empathy, but the story holds intriguing, sometimes tragic, twists.
Kim Echlin, The Disappeared (Penguin Canada, 2009)
A lyrical exploration of family relationships created and undone in war. Searching for the ‘truth’ about one’s closest friends turns out to be heart-wrenching. Set convincingly in both Montreal and Cambodia, this is a delicate and moving portrayal of connection and loss.
Anne Michaels, The Winter Vault (McClelland & Stewart, 2009)
Canada’s and one of the world’s great stylists of language, Michaels is best known for the deeply moving Fugitive Pieces. The breadth of this book is remarkable, moving as it does between the flooding towns of the Saint Lawrence as the Seaway is built, to Montreal to Toronto to Egypt’s Valley of the Kings as […]